La comunicación como medio de vinculación y fortalecimiento familiar

129 is consistent with the Logical Customer Performance Ladder propounded by Smith (2008) which this study intends to adopt.

130 variable, logistic regression became the analytic technique of choice. Space management was found to positively correlate with high levels of organizational efficiency.

The result of this study correlates with the findings of Amit and Shoemaker (1993) who studied strategic assets and organizational rent. Having sampled a total of 6584 nursing home employees from 76 nursing homes in mid-western United States with questionnaire, they found that space management can help one analyze historical space usage and create accurate chargeback reports.

RESEARCH OBJECTIVE 2

To examine the influence of workplace programming and receptiveness of the seaports in the study area

The result in the correlation Table 4.2 shows that the relationship between workplace programming and responsiveness is significant (r = .98). This value indicates that correlation is significant at 0.05 level (2tailed).

The finding correlates with a study conducted by Sukati et al. (2012) who investigated the impact of work environment on competitive advantage. The study also assesses the impact of organizational responsiveness on firm competitive advantage. The data collection instrument used was a questionnaire which was administrated to a total sample of 400 managers in Malaysia manufacturing industry. The response rate was 62% while 50% was usable questionnaires. Sample selection was based on convenience sampling. Data were analyzed using mean, standard deviation and correlation between independent and dependent variables. The analyses involved statistical methods such as reliability and validity tests and multiple regressions. The research findings supported the hypotheses that work environment positively impact organizational responsiveness and competitive advantage.

131 The result is also consistent with the work of Sukati, Hamid, Baharun and Tat (2010) on the relationship between the internal environment and organizational responsiveness. The study hypothesized that if positive, the relationship could enhance competitive advantage. The data collection instrument used was questionnaire administered to 200 managers. The response rate was 70%. The result indicated that the internal environment relates to organizational responsiveness and further enhances competitive advantage of the organizations under study.

The study disagrees with the work of Otchere, Anaan and Quansah (2013) on an assessment of the challenges of organizational responsiveness in the Cocoa industry using Cocoa farmers in Ashanti Region of Ghana. The study sought to examine the major constraints which inhibited effective response to customer demand in the industry. The study adopted adductive (inductive and deductive) approach with the administration of interview and questionnaire to collect quantitative data from farmers. The target population for the research covered five districts out of the twenty-seven districts in the Ashanti region. The regions which comprise Atwima Mponua, Atwina Nwabiagya (Nkawie), New Educbiase, Offiuiso, and Ahafo Awo South districts were selected randomly.

A sample size of 230 was pooled from the Ashanti region out of a total population of 8,000,000 cocoa farmers in Ghana. This also represented the number of copies of the questionnaire sent out which however, fetched a return of 81%. The study found that the challenges of organizational responsiveness were poor technological innovations, lack of information sharing and poor integrated database. The relative importance index run on the mean factors indicated that all the factors of internal, customers and supply integration were important for all the groups. The study further revealed that the best way of enhancing organizational responsiveness is to start from functional integration which is internal to external integrations.

132 RESEARCH OBJECTIVE 3

To ascertain the influence of business development management on employee engagement in the study area.

The values in Table 4.3 indicate that correlation is significant at 0.05 level (2tailed) and implies that the correlation between business development management and employee engagement is significantly positive (r = .80). The computed correlations coefficient is greater than the table value of r = .195 with 283 degrees of freedom (df. = n-2) at alpha level for a two-tailed test (r = .80, p< .05).

The findings are compatible with the empirical study of Onodugo (2000) who investigated human resources management in Awka based firms. Using survey research design with z-test statistic, she found that staff training and development plays a positive role in the organization through enhanced increase in employee performance. In the final analysis, she states that employee performance increases through skill acquisition and the ultimate end of human resource development is to equip the requisite skills to become more productive and thereby increase the chance of increasing the performance base.

However, the study disagrees with the findings of Alexander (2007) who in her study focused on the relationship of one cognitive ability test on long-term job performance as measured by personnel data. Archival data from over 3,000 employees at an international technology company were used to assess how aptitude test scores relate to both objective and subjective job performance measures. Supervisory performance ratings, level of promotion, and salary increase significantly contributed to variance in test scores; however, these results were inconsistent. Number of training courses did not have a significant relationship with test scores. Additionally, type of turnover did not moderate the relationship between aptitude test scores and job performance. These results indicate that although aptitude test score is related to long term job performance factors, other factors account for the majority of the variance.

133 The implication is that aptitude should not be the sole consideration when predicting long term job success.

Yet, the findings of the study is in alignment with the work of Tijani, Okunola and Orga (2000) evaluated the customer satisfaction in selected Hotels in Ikeja Area of Lagos. Table of random sampling technique was used to select 10 hotels from 27 hotels registered and recognized by Nigeria Tourism Development Corporation (NTDC) in the areas. A well-structured questionnaire was used to collect necessary data. Findings revealed that the Hotels in the studies area were not giving their customers’ satisfaction because what hotelier perceived as customer’s quality service differs from the guests’ expectation. The study concluded that managers and proprietors of hotels should accord necessary recognition to professionalism and staff training to achieve customer satisfaction.

The study also agrees with the works of Ayeni and Phopoola (2007), Bhatti and Nawab (2012), and Tella, Ayeni and Popoola (2007).

On the other hand, the findings of the study is consistent with Shah (2011) who examined employee career commitment factors in a public sector organization of a developing country.

His study was based on a theoretical approach to identify the proposed relationships of business development management, organizational commitment and job promotion variables with employee career commitment. Using a cross-sectional survey, the study found that independent variables such as business development management, organizational commitment and job promotion have positive and significant relationships to dependent variable – employee career commitment.

It also agrees with Abuga (2010) who correlated business development management and organizational commitment among fast food companies in Wisconsin United States of America. Her study was a quantitative study that involved a collection of data from 21

134

employees. The collected data were analyzed with Analysis of Variance (ANOVA), Duncan’s Multiple Range Test and Pearson correlates. The results showed that business development management affected organizational commitment.

Similarly, the study aligns with the findings of Lumley, Coetzee, Tladinyane and Ferreira (2011) who were saddled with the objective of exploring the relationship between employees’ job satisfaction with business development management (as measured by the Job Satisfaction Survey) and organisational commitment (as measured on the Organisational Commitment Scale). They conducted a cross-sectional survey on a convenience sample of 86 employees at four information technology companies in South Africa. Correlational and stepwise regression analyses revealed a number of significant relationships between the two variables.

The findings do not agree with the result of research by Ismail (2012) who examined the relationship between components of organizational commitment and business development management among employees at Higher Learning Education Institutions in Kelantan. The study generated a 96.3 percent response rate from 300 respondents. The result showed that affective, continuance and normative commitment was not found to have significant positive relationship with business development management.

The result for this objective is consistent with the empirical work of Celik (2010) which analyzed the relationship between components of employee engagement and business development management of tax office employees in Turkey. Factor analysis was conducted on the data obtained through organizational commitment scale developed by Meyer and Allen (1990). Cronbach's alpha coefficient and also test item total correlation were calculated for reliability of the factors. For two groups comparisons Mann Whitney U test and more than two groups comparisons Kruskall Wallis test were used. The study found a significantly positive correlation between business development management and employee engagement.

135 RESEARCH OBJECTIVE 4

To determine the influence of support services management on customer experience in seaports in South South Nigeria

Table 4.4 shows the result of the Spearman’s rank correlation analysis. The estimated Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient (r) 0.705 is high and shows that a strong relationship exists between support services management and customer experience. Therefore, to a large extent, support services management affects customer experience in Nigerian seaports.

The finding does not tally with a study conducted by May and Pinder (2014) who examined the impact of SSM on patient outcomes. They hypothesized on the extent to which practicing NHS Support Services Managers thought that the contribution of SSM could be measured in terms of health outcomes. Using a questionnaire which was distributed to NHS facilities from the majority of NHS trusts in England and Wales, they found that in general, there is little or no evidence from pre-existing research to prove the contribution of SSM in terms of health outcomes. However, in spite of this 59% of SS Managers in the NHS believed that the contribution of SSM could be measured; yet only a relatively small number of Trusts (16%) have attempted to measure the contribution of SSM. The analysis of their secondary data does not show any conclusive evidence of a correlation between SSM and health outcomes.

However, it agrees with research results of Spedding and Homes (1999) which have found a strong link between SSM and customer service specifications, but disagrees with Bootle and Kalyan (2002) who analyzed properties in business pulling together 74 separate investigations of SSM and realization of organizational goal in 1,200 organizations and found a positive, but very weak, relationship between SSM and attaining the goals of the organization.

The study tallies with the work of Lawson and Phiri (2000) who have also attempted to link SSM in the ward environment with patient outcomes. Their study compared two wards on

136 the same hospital site - one newly refurbished and the other a conventional 1960s design.

Their findings showed that, unsurprisingly, the patients in the newer buildings expressed more satisfaction with the appearance, layout and overall design.

It is also consistent with the study by Wong and Kwan (2001) which analyzed the competitive strategies of hotels and travel agents in Hong Kong and Singapore specifically to identify the competitive business strategies used by the hotels and the travel agents and examine the similarities and differences in these strategies across the two city-states. The findings indicate that cost competitiveness, SSM, and building a robust service delivery system are the top three competitive strategies which senior managers employ.

In consistence with the findings of the study, numerous studies in many service sectors have confirmed the positive relationship between support services management and customer satisfaction (Brady and Robertson, 2001; Cronin and Taylor, 1994; Parasuraman et al., 1994). The conflicting evidence was found in the work of Rosen and Suprenant (1998). The few studies in the transportation sector, including aviation (Anderson et al., 2009) and high-speed railways (Cao and Chen, 2011), revealed a positive relationship between service quality and customer satisfaction. Nevertheless, research in the maritime sector on this relationship, particularly in the context of ports, is scant and validates the conduct of this study.

137 CHAPTER FIVE

SUMMARY OF FINDINGS, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

This chapter provides an overview of the summary of findings, conclusion and recommendations of the study.